


Karkat ==> Return to your Shanty in the Hillside

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Because Dave turned into a dude when he was a bird?, Body Horror, M/M, Medievalstuck, Red Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 08:31:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6898615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat goes out one day and gets an unlikely visitor when he returns to his house</p>
            </blockquote>





	Karkat ==> Return to your Shanty in the Hillside

**Author's Note:**

> This was an AU from DaveActualStrider's blog, so I'll credit them for the AU?

The wind blew softly as you walked back to your little home in the hill, wearing a cloak with the hood over your head and holding the basket in hand. You wished you’d been more prepared before deciding to perform a spell, before you began to do it and before you realized you were out of the main ingredient and needed to go to the marketplace for it, which was a long walk from the house. You hope that nothing happened to what you had; you have no idea what it could do, nor want to know what it did if it were to activate. You stop thinking about the endless possibilities of what could go wrong, and start to walk a little faster to make sure it doesn’t activate. You were a warlock, damn it, and you will not let something like this ruin your reputation as one of the better spellcasters of the east.  
You start to see your house in sight, relieved that nothing has happened. As you walk closer, however, you spot something that begins to worry you; you left the window cracked. You hurry to the door, and open it. Your heart races as your eyes dart around the room, they landing at your workplace last. The spell you were working on had turned to powder and on the edge of the bowl was a small, black bird pecking at the glowing blue powder. “Shit!” You close the door behind you and drop the basket by the door and rush to the bird before carefully picking it up. You recognize it as a crow. Pretty average, maybe on the smaller side. You look to the powder, cursing under your breath when you realize that it has the telltale signs of activating. The problem is that you don’t know what it does, or if it’ll even hurt the crow. You don’t know what to do, but the crow may of helped you discover a new spell, but not sure what’ll do. You move the powder away from the middle of it as you set the crow back onto the desk and sit in the seat of your workplace.  
“I’ll have to watch you for a couple days,” you mutter as you pluck your journal from your cloak and look around for a pencil, “I hope you’ll be okay.” You stand up, looking around, “Where the hell is my fucking pencil?” A caw catches your attention before you look down, bemused at the sight; the crow had your pencil in its beak, like it was helping you. Another caw pulls you back to reality, sitting down and taking the pencil from it and look to it. You push away black locks of hair from out of your face chuckling. “Smart thing, aren’t you?” It cawed again, and you open your journal and begin to jot notes, high intelligence is what you write before closing it. “Since you’ll be around for a couple days, I might as well give you a name.”  
You look to your books on the shelf, catching one in particular; Observing Close; The Difference Between the Crow and the Raven. It was a small novella, and the cover that it had was worn, you barely able to identify the authors. The only name you can make out is Dave. You look to the crow on your workplace, you walking towards it. “I guess I’ll call you Dave for the time being.”

 

You’ve been scribbling into the journal since you’ve found Dave with the comparisons between him and the crows that live in the trees outside. You think the powder you’ve created increases intelligence, but you’re not sure how long it’ll last. Dave’s much smarter than the birds by the time the sun has set (and perhaps a humanoid you’ve met in your life)  
You’re outside again, watching the other crows as they sit in the apple trees you live by, flying over to other branches or entirely different trees. Dave sits on your shoulder, and you hearing him make little cawing noises. You wonder if he knows any of the crows that live in the trees, or if the others are his “flock.” As the sky paints itself purple and pink, you turn your head slightly to get a good look at him. “You know, Dave, you can go up there if you want-”  
It doesn’t take him too long before he hops from your shoulder and flies up to the trees, cawing loudly. You laugh a little as you open your journal up. He’s smart, very smart. He understands when you look for something and it goes as far as understanding language. You look at the trees, trying to figure out which one is Dave. As you study them, you see one fall to the ground. You stand and begin walking over to the fallen bird. It must’ve been a baby, or one learning to fly. As you walk up to it, you find that it was bigger one flailing its wings. You pick it up, out of curiosity, “Dave?”  
The bird stops and looks to you, cawing once. It is Dave. You open your hands flatly and Dave sits on top of them. “Here, try to fly.” He starts to flap his wings and eventually hops off from the flats of your hands before falling again onto the ground. You pick him up again, and he stills and looks at you. “You....you can’t fly.” You study him, not seeing any injury that would cause him not to fly. You look up to see in the trees, reaching up and grabbing onto an apple and pulling it. “It’s getting dark, Dave. Maybe we should retire for the night.” He caws once, you taking it for agreement as you walk back inside and shutting the door behind you.  
As soon as you can, you set Dave down onto the table with the apple and look around for your magnifying glass. You find it in your workplace and walk back to Dave, finding him next to the apple, pecking at it. You pick it up and look into your cloak and pulling out a knife, beginning to cut a piece away from the apple and giving it to Dave. “I hope this helps,” You watch him go to the piece. “Dave, I’m going to ask you a few questions,” you begin as he picks at the piece of apple. “Caw once for no, twice for yes, and don’t if you don’t know. Do you understand me?”  
He caws twice, picking at the piece of apple. “Are you hurt?” He doesn’t answer, but looks to you as the piece is gone, excluding the peel. You chip off another piece of the apple and give it to him, “Dave, can you fly?” Once caw rings through the air, you opening your journal and add the recent in. Lost Ability to Fly.  
“Dave, are you tired?” Two caws, you look around and pick him up, and carrying him to your bed, and set him on your pillow. “Shouldn’t cause too much trouble right here. Are you okay here?” Two more caws from him, and you take off your cloak, stretching. You get into the bed beside him, rolling on your side to face him. He watched as Dave fluffed his feathers, smiling a little. “Good night, Dave.” Dave caws once, then the silence of the room lulls you to a deep slumber. The last thing you remember seeing is your feathered friend turning his head onto his side, using his wing as a pillow.

 

By the time you hear the birds beside your home begin to sing, you’re awake. You only lay in the bed, not opening your eyes because you can already tell it’s not even dawn. With birds on your mind, it begins to wander. “Dave,” your voice is thick with sleep and you’re already yawning. “Are you awake?” No answer, and you open an eye, finding that you’ve turned over in your sleep and you’re facing the wall. “Dave?” You roll over on your back and sit up, “Da-?”  
You stare in horror. In the other side of the bed was an actual other person in the place of Dave. You begin to grow angry; who the hell was he to come into your house and climb into your bed? You go to shake him awake when something catches your eye; a single black feather sticking out from his shoulder blade. It makes you second guess, and even study him. The man had light blond hair and his skin was darker than most humans, but you could tell that he was pale. You reach for the feather in his back and grab it carefully before pulling it out.  
He lifts his head up, you seeing many more feathers underneath him before laying back down, groaning a little. “Dave,” you say more loudly as you put your hand on his back, “Dave.” He finally opens his eyes for the first time. You see his red eyes, waving your hand at him. “Are you okay?” Dave looked at you for a second before closing his eyes. You get up out of bed, looking around before spotting the thing he needed; a mirror.  
You pick it up and begin carrying it to beside your bed and putting it down, “Open your eyes again, Dave.” You see him open his eyes again, not expecting him to scream, nor fall off the bed in shock. “Dave?!”  
“What the hell is that?!” You hear him yell. You walk around the bed, seeing him partially covered with your covered, and feathers all over the ground. “Your name is Dave?” He looks to you and nods quickly. “You- You said that you’d call me Dave yesterday,” he sputtered, “After I got in here and ate that blue stuff.” It becomes clear to you now; whatever the blue powder was made him like this. You begin to smile and run to your workplace, still having the powder in the bowl. “You’re not gonna make me eat anymore of that stuff, will you?” You look to him, “No, of course not!” You hear him sigh in relief as you put the powder on one of the shelves before you turn to him. You have no idea what to do with him, but the first thing that’ll keep him out of the dungeon for a while is a set of clothes.  
“I need to go somewhere,” you say as you walk to your side of the bed, grabbing your cloak from the floor. “What? Are you gonna leave me here? Alone?” You look to him, “Yes. Is something wrong?” Dave looked around him, “I have no feathers, and I don’t know how to use this body. What can be worse?” You put your cloak on as you walk over to the other side, and pick Dave up and set him on his feet. “Well, you walk on these. They’re called legs.” You let go of him as you look at the shelves again, going back for a liquid in one of Kanaya’s old spritzer bottles before walking back to Dave and spraying some in his face. He scrunched his nose, “What was that?”  
“It’ll help you. Practice walking until I get back, and when I’m here again I’ll help you with using your hands,” you explain. He looks at you, he barely keeping his balance. “No, dude, I just want to be myself again.” You nod, “Yeah, I understand; you need to learn how to live like this while I work on the reversal spell. It could be tomorrow I have it ready, or never.” Dave stares at you and coughs into his arm. “Well, what’s your name?”  
“What?”  
“What’s your name? I mean, you know mine. Don’t you think I have a right to know yours since I’ll be around you for who knows how long?” He doesn’t ask it menacingly, you able to see the fear in his eyes. He trusts you completely. “Karkat,” you say, “My name is Karkat. Don’t worry, I’ll try my best to get you to normal. I just need to get you some clothes so you aren’t hauled off.” He nods, “The cloth covering?” You nod before you walk to the door, “I’ll be right back, Dave, I promise.” He nods, and you leave the house. You hope you can find something for him.

 

By the time you’re back, you have another basket full of clothes and it’s beginning to get darker outside. You even hurried back. As you walk up, you don’t expect Dave to be outside. “Dave!” He looks at you, in the middle of reaching for an apple in the higher branches. You run to him and take the cloak off wrapping it around him, “What are you doing outside?” He reaches a little higher and grabs an apple, “Getting an apple.” You stare before as you held the cloak around him, “I meant what are you doing outside? Being outside without anything covering you is a crime! It’ll land you in the dungeon!”  
“But I’ve never worn any of the cloth coverings,” Dave said. You realize; he hasn’t. He was always covered in feathers. “Fair enough, Dave, but you’re human now and it is something that you cannot do.”  
“And why not?”  
“Because,” you began. Nothing came into mind immediately. “Is it because you cannot keep your eyes away from me?” You snap your eyes to him, he smiling a little. “Of course, I can’t keep my eyes away from you, you’ll be taken from me if you do things such as this!” You and he stood still before you looked around. “Come inside, I got you something to put on so you can walk around outside without being captured.”  
“How do you know I’ll not be like this for only a day?” Dave asks, “Are you sure that this would be something that lasts my lifetime?” You shake your head. “I don’t know anything about this. Whilst you’re like this, you need to act like a human. This may only last a day, a week a year, or a lifetime. When you turn back or when I find an answer so you can be with your family again, I will set you free to them but until then you mustn’t do anything to bring you any attention from her royal guards.” Dave nodded as you bring the both of you inside.

 

It’s been a week since you’ve brought Dave inside, and he’s still a human. He does help you whenever and he even works in the village. You work at your workplace for a reversal spell but you cannot focus. Dave’s been on your mind; thoughts and ideas clouded by his presence, and you don’t really mind it all. It’s of his sweet words or how he looks at you. You and he do bicker; who wouldn’t when one shares a bed with another person you are starting to know. But after the moment has cooled down, he apologizes for his words and thanks you for putting up with him and for helping him. You suppose the bickering isn’t so bad as you catch yourself doodling pictures of him again. You rip the page out and slip into a secret drawer, embarrassed that you’re feeling strange emotions about him.

 

A month passes, and you and he have grown close. The both of you now work beside each other for the farmer. He doesn’t pay you, but he does welcome you to whatever you like in return for your and Dave’s work. Weekly, the farmer gives you in wheat and Dave receives a bundle of wool and cotton.  
You and he don’t mind the bed now, and you barely to remember about the reversal without Dave asking about it. You’re not sure, but you’re beginning to think that he doesn’t mind being human anymore because his flock recognizes him. The way he moves makes you question your existence.

As you awake with the rising sun, you don’t remember how long it has been exactly when you fell in love with Dave. You do know that several winters have passed and you do know that it’s the day of the wedding ceremony. You spring up from the bed.  
Since the time meeting Dave, you and he have moved closer to town. As expected, his flock came along. You look to the bed and find that he’s gone. Your heart drops as you look around, finding him outside. He’s dressed and you wander outside, peering around the corner. He sits in the grass and a bird messes with his hair. His golden curls had leaves and black feathers in his hair, he laughing as the crow puts another feather in his hair.  
“Mother, my hair is fine,” he laughed as it cawed while it stood in his hair, “I promise.” You watch the crow look to you and caw, Dave looking over to you. You laugh a little as he stands, the bird staying in his hair. You think he was a blessing for you. You couldn’t wait for what the future held. You walk towards him as he lifts you up and twirls you in the air. “I love you,” he said as he lowers you and kisses you on the lips. You kiss back before he pulled away, the both of you smiling at each other. “I love you too, Dave.” You kiss him again, not wanting it to end.

**Author's Note:**

> This was 5 pages on Google Documents, I'm so sorry for this


End file.
